A National Study of Training Content and Activities for Faculty Development for Online Teaching

Abstract

This article presents the results of a national study of 39 higher education institutions that collected information about their practices for faculty development for online teaching and particularly the content and training activities used during 2011-2012. This study found that the most frequently offered training content (97% of the institutions) was assessment of student learning, followed by creating online community (91.1%), and training on the institution’s CMS, student learning styles, and instructional design models (all at 84%). Most frequent training activities (over 90% of institutions) were the workshop, one-on-one training, short sessions, hands-on training, one-time training, and creating an online course. Interesting differences by Carnegie institution type were found, perhaps explained by developers placing more value on teaching pedagogies than tools.